The political wing of Hamas should be proscribed as a terrorist organization like its military wing, a Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) official has said. His comments come as charities criticized the UK government’s Gaza aid policy.

Michael McCann MP, vice
chair of LFI, made the suggestion at a Westminster Hall debate
Wednesday about Britain’s contribution to preventing further
conflicts in Gaza.

His comments come amid an outcry that the UK government is trying
to link the reconstruction of Gaza with its demilitarization.

He argued the government should “assess the increasing
evidence that Hamas’ political and military wings are
contrapuntally linked,” he said, and push for the addition
of the political wing to the list of prohibited terror
organizations.

“Hamas are investing their resources in rearming, and now –
ominously – they have almost regained their full military
capability. Hamas are preparing for further attacks on
Israel.”

Britain should also use its position on the UN Security Council
to place sanctions on countries which aim to transfer weapons to
the terror group, McCann said.

The government’s Middle East minister, Tobias Ellwood, did not
give a response to the suggestion, but did acknowledge that he
was “deeply concerned” at the claims Hamas was rearming,

Ellwood said the country would continue to lobby for the
loosening of restrictions on goods transfers and the movement of
people in and out of Gaza, and urged the EU to assist with the
construction of a port in Gaza to increase trade.

The possibility of the international community overseeing the
destruction of weaponry in Gaza was also raised in the debate.

This suggestion has been heavily criticized by NGOs who strongly
oppose attempts to link demilitarization with reconstruction in
Gaza, which was heavily bombed during the conflict with Israel
last summer, killing 2,000 Gazan civilians, including many women,
children and the elderly.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said Wednesday
the region was in dire need of funds for reconstruction, and that
countries that tried to link aid to demilitarization were in
danger of enforcing collective punishment on Palestinians.

UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness said children in the region had
frozen to death over the winter, with parents and grandparents
blaming the deaths on lack of donations. “The international
donor community killed those babies,” he reports one
grandfather as saying.

“The UN has always condemned rocket fire but collective
punishment is illegal. You can't punish freezing children because
of the actions of armed groups,” he said.

“The situation is so desperate in Gaza and what we need right
now is money for reconstruction,” he added.

International charity Oxfam is also firmly in favor of opening up
Gaza for aid and international donations.

Spokesperson Alun McDonald said the charity “believes there
must be an immediate and complete end to the blockade of Gaza,
which constitutes collective punishment of the civilian
population.”